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U BREAKIT, U BOUGHTIT: It was as if the county supervisors came armed for a piñata party but somebody forgot to invite the candy. In this case, the intended target would have been anyone representing perhaps the most pathologically dysfunctional nonprofit agency to squander county taxpayer money in the past 20 years, Lompoc Housing and Community Development Corporation (LHCDC). As usual, no one from LHCDC bothered to show up, even though it was their multimillion-dollar mess the supervisors found themselves scrambling to clean up this Tuesday. Weirdly, County Executive Officer Chandra Wallar sought to fill the breach by making herself the target instead. To that end, Wallar did an outstanding job arousing the wrath of an impressive cross section of affected parties. Wallar recommended that the county supervisors just walk away from LHCDC’s financial meltdown, even if that meant letting Lompoc’s 56-bed Bridgehouse homeless shelter remain shut down for the foreseeable future. Wallar argued that county government is not in the business of owning and operating a homeless shelter. Based on that, Wallar recommended that county government should not assume ownership of Bridgehouse via what’s known as a “deed-in-lieu” foreclosure, even though the county all but bought the property for LHCDC in 2001.

Angry Poodle

Given that Wallar and the supes will confront a $15-million budget shortfall in a few months, I can see why she wouldn’t want to be on the hook for what could be a couple hundred-thousand more. But Wallar’s math was strictly short-term and ignored the county’s long-term complicity in allowing the LHCDC mess to achieve critical mass. No, county officials did not force LHCDC to invest money it did not have in a series of black-hole and white-elephant real estate deals. But a whole lot of county officials had to strain their necks looking the other way before finally sounding the alarm last year. That’s when it was announced that LHCDC had failed to provide any of the legally required financial statements and inspection reports since 2007. Making matters especially uncomfortable are LHCDC’s close relationships with 4th District County Supervisor Joni Gray. For many years, Gray’s husband represented Lompoc Housing in legal matters. And Gray’s chief of staff, Susan Warnstrom, was president of LHCDC’s board of directors. But Gray — a full-fledged partner in her husband’s law firm since 2006 — never saw fit to recuse herself from any of the supervisors’ many funding votes on LHCDC, worth millions of dollars, until notified there was a conflict of interest late last year.

Reaction to Wallar’s recommendation was dramatic, swift, and utterly one-sided. Santa Maria Mayor Larry Lavagnino — father of 5th District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino — complained Santa Maria’s shelters had been “inundated” with Lompoc’s homeless since Bridgehouse shut down January 17. Others — invoking the “domino theory” — warned that Santa Barbara could soon be swamped, too. If the City of Lompoc could take over one of LHCDC’s two shelters, argued Lompoc Mayor John Linn, certainly the County of S.B. could take the other one. Mike Foley of S.B.’s Casa Esperanza shelter noted that the county is, in fact, in the business of operating a homeless shelter for emancipated foster kids, and wondered what the hell county officials had been doing to keep Bridgehouse open since November 1, when the supervisors last discussed the issue. Former Lompoc mayor Joyce Howerton — who could well jump into this year’s race against Gray — indelicately reminded the supes that they bore some responsibility for the problem. “Pastor Doug,” who has organized Lompoc’s pop-up emergency warming shelter to handle those displaced from Bridgehouse, reminded the supervisors that real people are involved. “We call them guests. We call them friends,” he said.

Given this reaction, the supervisors put on a fine display of political footwork to distance themselves from Wallar. Supervisor Salud Carbajal got off the best one-liner, comparing management of LHCDC to the Loch Ness Monster. (Everybody else has seen them, he complained, except the county supes.) But Carbajal hyperventilated a bit, demanding to know if the district attorney could simply seize LHCDC’s properties outright. (The simple answer is no.) Supervisor Janet Wolf expressed outrage that LHCDC maintained its rental properties — about 250 of them — in such wretched condition that some tenants felt compelled to seek refuge at Bridgehouse. She demanded a “forensic audit” to find out what LHCDC did with the many millions of taxpayer dollars it received. Supervisor Lavagnino made the numbers dance as only a fiscal conservative can, arguing it made no sense for the county to walk away from an 11-acre property worth $1.5 million just because there were encumbrances on it worth a few hundred-thousand. The county would lose less, he argued, by holding the property for a year, paying Santa Maria’s Good Samaritan Shelter to run it, and eventually selling it to someone else, most likely Good Sam. Wallar argued that such a transaction was highly unlikely, given the 60-year deed restriction requiring the property to be used as a shelter. Who would want to buy it? Ultimately, it would be Supervisor Doreen Farr who managed to say the most while saying the least. Wasn’t it the county supes, she asked, that imposed that 60-year restriction in the first place? Yes, Wallar answered. Farr followed up with, couldn’t the supervisors also vote to rescind that restriction? Again, the answer was yes. With that, the supes voted 4-to-0 — Gray having recused herself — to accept the foreclosed-upon property and instructed Wallar to get it reopened as a shelter ASAP.

As rhetorical windmilling goes, it was a fine display. But why put people through all that bother when the solution seemed not just so obvious but also so inevitable? I didn’t get it and still don’t. Hopefully, there won’t be a next time. But if there is, make sure to put some candy in that piñata. My blood sugar’s crashing.

Comments

Supervisor Janet Wolf expressed outrage that LHCDC maintained its rental properties — about 250 of them — in such wretched condition that some tenants felt compelled to seek refuge at Bridgehouse. She demanded a “forensic audit” to find out what LHCDC did with the many millions of taxpayer dollars it received.

Kudos to Supervisor Wolf. The people deserve to know where the taxpayer monies went.

The forensic audit should include an audit of the process to identify where the system broke down, how required filings went, allegedly, un-noticed, and disclosure to the public the list of names of past board of directors of LHCDC.

I loved your pinata party analogy Nick, but it was not the candy that was missing, it was the pinata (i.e., LHCDC) that failed to show up. Can you blame them. What self-respecting pinata was choose to go to a pinata party? You may be right that Waller played her hand wrong on this, but she is no idiot. The two North County supervisors recently failed to support her idea for an oil production tax to help narrow the budget gap. Now one of the those very same North County supervisors was asking the Board to spend money it does not have. Owning the Bridgehouse with all its equity is not the same as having money. The County is like the old Southern plantation owners, land rich and cash poor. Waller probably knew how this was going to go down, with the image of homeless families thrown on the street being tossed about by South County bleeding heart liberals and North County let-em-eat-cake conservatives alike. And the Board did not come up with funding. She is on record now that there is no magic source of money and when she returns with budget change to fund the shelter, she has paved the way for some very uncomfortable choices. I don't care how much she gets paid, I would not want to be her.

Up here in North county we refer to them as the Board of Stupidvisors. Karen Wolf? Dense to say the least. She has yet to show any foresight or leadership qualities as far as many of us are concerned. Salud Carbajal? My personal experience with him is that he is a "go along to get along" dunce. Doreen Farr? Sheesh! The article states that her minimalist contribution spoke loudest. Uh huh. Joni Gray? Shyster, liar, vindictive old broad that has outlived her usefulness. Steve Lavagnino? has not been around long enough to have any serviceable impact on policy. Just sayin'.......

There's no community benefit in protecting the political and business careers of those involved in the leadership of the LHCDC. The community reserves the right to review the list of names of the board of directors of the LHCDC.

This defunct enterprise is now a liability of the County and the taxpayers.

Well TheTruthLies... I have disagreed with you in the past on this issue. But I absolutely, without reservation of any kind, agree with your recommendation to reveal the names of the LHCDC Board. Who are these people and how did they come to make the decisions that they made? The list could be very telling if we can discern the political connections. This is a complete fiasco and those responsible should held to account.

Thanks for the laugh Nick, on such a serious county problem. It is almost laughable on how corrupt this is looking. Who the heck was is charge of these grant monies given to LHCDC all these years? A non profit has to file every year, with the giver of the grant, as to where all the money went. As for the grant giver, our BOS, how could they miss that this paperwork wasn't filed??? and continue to give our money away to this group of thieves? This is the same group that was going to "revive" the old Lompoc Theatre. Nothing has happened there either.

We need to know how much money this BOS Joni Gray and Husband law firm received. Seeing that LHCDC broke the law by not filing required grant paperwork , shouldn't the law firm give back ALL the monies they got? What a racket! Joni Gray should have been forced to step down immediately! I am endlessly astounded at how corrupt our local government is.....Sue Erlich and of course Joni's own Warnstrom, were two on the board. I hear Erlich was making over $100K a year to run this "non-profit" but the "poor" non-profit" couldn't afford a bookkeeper or to make payments on their properties. What a bunch of thieves! I think it's called embezzlement and it is illegal.. The homeless shelter, Brideghouse, sits on 11beautiful country acres in Santa Barbara county. and it may well be worth the money owed, if it can be transformed. Perhaps low income housing could be developed through community support, volunteers and those that wish to live there, pulling together and helping to build something wonderful, instead of one 56 bed shelter on 11 acres, that seems to cost a fortune to run extremely poorly.

Nick, it seems like the legs on this story got taken out as soon as it began gaining momentum. I'm afraid that the Powers got to you, too, as they have gotten to everyone else that has threaten to blow this out of the water.

Its likely we won't be hearing from you anymore on the corruption that has consumed County government.

Nice try, and thank you for your attempt at bring attention to this matter..